Good To Great And The Social Sectors: A Monograph to Accompany Good to Great

Yet a finding from our research is instructive: the key variable is not how (or how much) you pay, but who you have on the bus. The comparison companies in our research—those that failed to become great—placed greater emphasis on using incentives to “motivate” otherwise unmotivated or undisciplined people. The great companies, in contrast, focused

Yet the wide variation in economic structures in the social sectors increases the importance of the hedgehog principle—the inherent complexity requires deeper, more penetrating insight and rigorous clarity than in your average business entity. You begin with passion, then you refine passion with a rigorous assessment of what you can best contribute

Enduring great institutions practice the principle of Preserve the Core and Stimulate Progress, separating core values and fundamental purpose (which should never change) from mere operating practices, cultural norms and business strategies (which endlessly adapt to a changing world).

Third, the number-one resource for a great social sector organization is having enough of the right people willing to commit

The critical step in the Hedgehog Concept is to determine how best to connect all three circles, so that they reinforce each other. You must be able to answer the question, “How does focusing on what we can do best tie directly to our resource engine, and how does our resource engine directly reinforce what we can do best?” And you must be right.

GOOD-TO-GREAT…

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you can build a pocket of greatness without executive power, in the middle of an organization.

STAGE 1: DISCIPLINED PEOPLE Level 5 Leadership. Level 5 leaders are ambitious first and foremost for the cause, the organization, the work—not themselves—and they have the fierce resolve to do whatever it takes to make good on that ambition. A Level 5 leader displays a paradoxical blend of personal humility and professional will. First Who … Then W

driven to do the best they can because it is simply part of their DNA.